Living in the light of the resurrection...

I love the old French carol - NOEL NOUVELET - that likely hails from the 15th century. I also cherish the English/Easter setting by John Macleod Campbell Crum from 1928: "Now the Green Blade Rises."  I love the lilt of the tune, the earthy lyrics and connection of the Christian story with the seasons of the earth.  To be sure, the theology of the hymn is off as there is NOTHING inevitable about Christ's resurrection.  If Easter were just another fertility rite instead of God's radical YES to creation despite all the evidence, I'd simply have another beer and go back to bed.
Perhaps that's why I was taken by Fr. Richard Rohr's writing for today that radically expands the meaning of Easter without dumbing it down.  He writes:

The voluntary self-gift of Jesus was his free acceptance of all creation—even in its weakness and imperfection. He chose to become brother to humanity, and he invites all who would be brother or sister to this world to join with him. The Risen Christ moves in both directions at once, toward God and toward us, and thus mediates and proclaims our Essential Nature. We are not separate from God, nor will we die. Both are on cosmic display in the body of Jesus.

We did not do the Gospel any favor, nor cooperate with God’s plan and intention, by making Jesus the sole example of resurrection, or that the resurrection was to prove that Jesus was good or Jesus was God. Jesus is a corporate personality, a stand-in for all of us, the Archetype of Life, history summed up in one glorious moment. (See 1 Corinthians 15:20-22 if you think this is just my idea!) Thus we can live in hope of the same resurrection for everything that has been tortured, dismissed, abused, denied, or cut short. Resurrection is God’s pattern for everything. Grace is everywhere.

In the Turkish daily that we're reading in anticipation of our trip in June, it was reported that a local Bishop in Egypt spoke on Easter of the resurrection coming at the wrong time:  there is no joy now, no sign of God's presence with us!  What gospel is this dude reading!  The blessing of Christ's resurrection is precisely the opposite!  God comes to bring hope and renewal at the worst possible time - beyond all obvious evidence - come on, Father!  Get with the 2,000 year old program, ok?